


Miserable Shot

by procrastinatingbookworm



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Kissing, Love Confessions, Lucifer Bingo, Suicidal Thoughts, Therapy, now with deckerstar!, s02e14 Candy Morningstar, slight AU, this got away from me a bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-09 00:01:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17396240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/procrastinatingbookworm/pseuds/procrastinatingbookworm
Summary: Slight AU of Candy Morningstar: Chloe's aim isn't as perfect. Lucifer has issues.For the LuciferBingo prompt: Accidental Injury





	1. Chapter 1

“Just shoot me, detective!” Lucifer demanded, eyes boring into Chloe.

She fired. Twice.

The two men sprung apart, the murderer — Doug, she remembered — dropping to his knees, while Lucifer stumbled to the side.

Lucifer sucked in a watery breath, like a child about to start bawling over a skinned knee.

She could deal with him later; after she took care of the perp.

 

Lucifer was still standing there when she straightened up, leaving Doug cuffed on the floor, a makeshift bandage made out of his t-shirt tied around the bullet wound. 

The garrote wire was still draped around Lucifer’s neck. He was staring into space, one hand raised as if in defense — or surrender — and the other…

...was pressed to his side, over a bullet wound that leaked crimson down his side.

“Oh shit,” Chloe exclaimed, prying his hand away.

“It was a miserable shot,” Lucifer agreed, his hands falling to his sides. “Don’t they teach you to aim for the center of mass in cop school?”

 

What the _hell_ was he…

 

“You thought I was trying to kill you?!” Chloe asked, caught between horror and hurt. 

Lucifer blinked. He looked genuinely surprised. “You mean you weren’t?”

“You’re my partner, why would I want to hurt you?”

Lucifer stared at her, entirely uncomprehending. “You don’t need me anymore. You’re angry at me. Why wouldn’t you shoot me, given the opportunity?”

 

He was still bleeding.

 

“We’ll talk about this later,” Chloe promised. She pushed Lucifer’s jacket off his shoulders and pressed it against the wound. He mumbled something about ruining an expensive suit, as if there wasn’t already a bullet hole in it.

 

She couldn’t stop thinking about how he’d expected her to kill him.

 

—

 

“Did you want me to kill you?” Chloe asked, much later. 

Lucifer didn’t respond. That was answer enough. There was a shock blanket wrapped around his shoulders. It was all that covered him above the waist, other than the bandages wrapped around his side.

“Why?”

“You don’t need me,” Lucifer said, quietly.

“I’m sorry I said that, Lucifer,” Chloe rested her hand on his back. “I was just… angry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

She couldn’t process this. She couldn’t think about the way he had looked at her when her gun had been pointed at him. He hadn’t been afraid. He’d been… hopeful.

 

“Can you explain to me,” Chloe started, and Lucifer twitched. “Why you wanted me to shoot you?”

“You don’t… need me,” Lucifer repeated, slowly, like he was speaking to a small child. “Why wouldn’t you dispose of me? You wouldn’t even face consequences; I was standing between you and a murderer.”

“Do you really think the only reason I wanted you as my partner was because I needed you?”

Lucifer hesitated. “Not… before. But now? Most likely." 

“You…” Chloe sighed. “Do you really want to die?”

Lucifer smiled thinly, his grip tightening on the shock blanket. “The opportunity has passed, so it’s rather a moot point, yes?”

 

When she thought about it, this wasn’t new. When she had found the street preacher’s body and pulled her gun on him, he’d taunted one of the rookies, almost getting himself shot before he vanished. Then placing himself in the crosshairs of a sniper as some form of self-punishment, and now this.

 

“Talk to Linda about this,” she said, almost pleading.

Lucifer nodded, but Chloe wasn’t going to be caught out by his non-answers again.

“Promise me.” 

He squirmed at that, and Chloe couldn’t help a fleeting sense of satisfaction. She knew him.

“I promise,” he mumbled, looking away.

She supposed that was good enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> By request, a second chapter, featuring Linda.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?"

Lucifer squirmed. If there was one tone he could read perfectly, it was disappointment under a layer of calm.

"Why would I? Is it not... common sense, to dispose of what is useless or upsetting?"

Linda drew in a breath and pinched the bridge of her nose. "The KonMari method doesn't apply to people and lives, Lucifer."

"I still don't see why I would need to tell you."

"Maybe because asking to be  _shot_ at the first sign of rejection counts as suicidal ideation, and is exactly the kind of thing I'm supposed to steer you away from."

Lucifer looked away for a moment, catching sight of his reflection in the window of Linda's office. His eyes were dull and glassy. He looked back at Linda, not making eye contact. "It's not an issue. It never works out, anyway."

Linda's eyebrows shot up. "That suggests that there has been more than one instance."

Lucifer squirmed. Damn.

"Maybe..." Linda sighed and made one of her gestures. Hands held out, palms toward him. Placating, maybe. "It's  _good_ that your... attempts have not succeeded."

"Everyone would be better off without me, Doctor," Lucifer said, quietly.

Linda wrote something on her clipboard. He could make it out if he squinted.  _Reverts to professional/distant language when faced with emotion._

"That," Linda started, folding her hands in her lap. "Just proves my point."

"And what is your point, dear doctor?" He was being unkind. Perhaps she would write something about defensiveness, or avoidance.

"This is a pattern of thought and behavior that really needs to be dealt with. You're a danger to yourself."

Lucifer poured himself a glass of water and didn't reply. She was too bloody good at this.

"What do you suggest?"

"First, I need you to promise me that you won't intentionally harm yourself, ask to be harmed, or deliberately place yourself in danger."

Lucifer brightened, immediately finding a loophole. "No can do, doctor. I work with the police. Placing myself in danger comes with the territory."

Linda glanced at the clock and sighed. She wrote something down, then tipped her clipboard up so he couldn't read it. "Can you promise the first two?"

Lucifer looked away again. "I..."

Linda leaned forward. "I think you should talk to Chloe."

"What would that achieve?"

"You don't want to hurt her, right?"

Lucifer narrowed his eyes. "Yes, of course."

"Well, she called me while you were in the hospital. She said she was worried about you, and that she didn't know what she would do if you were gone." Linda took a breath, and Lucifer winced, preparing for the coup de grâce. "She was very distressed, and you were barely hurt."

"Damn," Lucifer muttered. "Fine. I promise to do my best not to let myself come to harm intentionally. If only to keep the Detective happy."

Linda leaned back in her chair. "Okay. Good. That's all we have time for today, but  _please_ talk to Chloe. She feels terrible about hurting you."

"You're manipulating me, doctor." Lucifer murmured.

"I'm guiding you in the right direction. For your own benefit."

Lucifer stood up, adjusting his cuffs. "Fine. Good day, Linda."

 

What was it with the women in his life? How much can one care about a monster?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> By request once again, a third chapter.

Chloe was waiting when Lucifer got back to the penthouse. He almost didn’t notice her, heading straight to the bar to pour himself a drink, but the sunlight reflecting through the expansive window illuminated her.

Lucifer thought, abruptly, that it should be nighttime. This wasn’t a conversation for daylight, the anger in her eyes was only heightened by the sunshine, and it was all unbearably  _ bright _ .

It almost made him laugh. Lucifer, the lightbringer, the morningstar, cowed by the simple brightness of the stars he made.

He didn’t make  _ her _ , though. His father did. Either  _ for _ him or  _ because _ of him, and he couldn’t bear either.

As bright as he shines, he’s still a creature of darkness, corruption crawling in his footsteps. He can’t damage something as good as her. It would—it  _ was _ —eating him alive.

Chloe cleared her throat behind him, and Lucifer drained his glass to hold down the ache that rose in his chest at the sound.

“Have you come to scold me, detective?” he asked, falsely bright. “If so, you needn’t, the good doctor already gave me quite a severe talking-to.”

Chloe scoffed, walking over to him. He didn’t look at her, but he could hear her boot-heels clicking. She took the glass and the bottle out of his hands, setting them out of reach.

Her skin brushed his, and the ache rose in the wake of her touch, electricity followed by numbness.

“I’m here because I’m worried about you, Lucifer.”

Lucifer’s voice died before he even opened his mouth. He swallowed down the lump in his throat. “Worried about me?” he echoed, itching to reach for the bottle again.

_ A miracle indeed,  _ he thought, speechless, when she lifted her hand to his neck, running her fingers along the faint bruise the garrote wire left on his skin. She pressed down on his trachea, and he felt her heartbeat in her fingertips.

“I care about you,” she told him, and it took all his strength not to crumble there and then. “I don’t want you to think that I could ever want to hurt you, or want you dead. I like having you around.” 

Chloe’s hand slid down to his shoulder, cool against the desperate heat of him, an electrifying balm even through the layers of his suit. Lucifer swallowed hard.

“I…” he began, but she shook her head.

“I’m angry at you,” she told him, evenly, as though it was unalterable fact. “You  _ will _ explain yourself, and you  _ will _ provide proof, and you’re not getting back in my good graces until you do. But you  _ will not, ever _ do something that stupid and self-destructive  _ ever again, _ because I am sick and tired of being worried about you.”

She rested her palm on his chest, over his broken, aching heart. He couldn’t do anything but nod.

“I miss my partner,” Chloe said. “I missed you, Lucifer. I still miss you, because you’re pushing me away, and I want to know why.”

“I will explain,” Lucifer croaked out, before she could drive the knife in any further. “I promise. Candy wasn’t really… we never… it wasn’t real.”

“It wasn’t?”

Lucifer shook his head, wincing away from the possibility of anger in her voice.

She took pity on him, wrapping her arms around his waist, bending one arm to avoid pressing down on the bullet wound. Her head, brightened by the sunlight, rested against his chest. She held him for a moment before pulling away, lifting her head.

“I want you,”  she told him, pressing her lips to his. “It doesn’t matter if I need you or not, I  _ want _ you.”

It took him a moment to kiss her back, blinded and breathless at her touch, her love and tenderness, her  _ forgiveness, _ despite everything he was.

It was too much, but her arms were still around him, and even if he could bear to pull away, he couldn’t flee, not again. Not from her. The ache coiled in his throat and chest, pressed behind his eyes, and he broke.

“Lucifer,” Chloe murmured, her mouth still close enough that he could feel her breath on his lips, brushing her thumbs across his cheeks. “What’s wrong?”

He was crying, he realized, in horror. He couldn’t even speak. She was still looking at him, with the soft concern she usually directed at the families of victims. 

“Lucifer,” she murmured. “Are you okay?”

“No,” he admitted, voice breaking. “I… I don’t deserve this.”

“You sure as  _ Hell  _ don’t.” Chloe kissed him again, gently, far more gentle than her words. “Neither do I, if I scared you away to Vegas.”

“Detective—” She didn’t deserve him, she was right. She deserved better.

“But this isn’t about deserving, or needing. We want each other, right?”

He could only nod, and bend his head to kiss her.

She wrapped her arms around him again, and he rested his hands tentatively on her waist. “I’m sorry for shooting you, and for saying I didn’t need you.”

“I’m sorry too,” Lucifer admitted, and it grated painfully out of his chest, even though he meant it. “I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted to… give you a choice. I now realize… I took your choice away.”

“You came back, though,” Chloe leaned up to kiss him, and he kissed back, unable to let go of her now that he was allowed to touch her. 

“I did,” Lucifer breathes. “I couldn’t stay away.”

“Don’t leave again.”

“I won’t,” he promised, forcing back another wave of tears. “I won’t.”

“I want you,” she told him, bright as the stars he made, incorruptible, even by him.

_ A miracle indeed. _


End file.
